Friday, October 16, 2009

Internet: How I have missed thee

Okay to be fair to the title I have had internet but it has been limited to 30 minutes a day so here is another big blog to encompass the past few missing days.
The first day I met with the people from my new Hostel, they are pretty cool people, actually they are all from Australia and two of them are from the same town. The group that came from the same town is two girls (Rebecca and Brigget) and a guy(Jack), Jack and Brigget are engaged, they just got engaged and Jack flew out from Australia as a surprise( they are around 21). The other people are a also engaged and they are also from Australia and they are have been engaged for around 6 months (they are around 26). This first day was really the evening that I arrived in Rome, I went for a walk with my new Hostel mates, we walked down to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum but didn't enter either since the price was expensive and it was the end of the day. The forum had actually closed so we wandered through the streets until we found a small restaurant where we had a drink. I had a Nectarine Juice it was very thick and tasted wonderful. After the drinks e headed back to the Hostel for dinner since the served a free pizza dinner every night at 8:30. After the pizza I went back to my bed and fell asleep since I was tired. Its been weird walking everywhere since I have not wanted to spend money on trains and buses unless I need to and most of the cities have had things close enough that you can walk to the attractions (the exception has been Rom, walking to the Vatican from where I was staying would have been murder). The few times I have taken the buses and metro its usually been cheap(1 or 2 Euros) but if I did that to get everywhere it would add up. As a result my legs have been constantly tired since about a week into the trip, the 30 lb backpack doesn't help either.
So I got up the next morning and ate breakfast with my new set friends before we split off and went our ways for the day, they had decided to visit the Vatican while I decided that I would solo all the big sites in downtown Rome( Pantheon, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum). I arrived at the Pantheon after wandering around the area for about an hour looking for the building, I eventually found a sign and then followed the line on tourists to the building. The Pantheon was free top enter the building itself was cool but I found that most of my interest went not into the main building but into the walls and decorations that adorned them. After the Pantheon I headed to the lines at the Roman forum and waited to get my ticket, the whole price was 12.5 Euro and includes the Roman Forum, Colosseum and Palatine Hill. It's a good deal if you make it to them all which you should. I walked through the Forum first which was not as impressive as one might hope, without the 4 Euro guide its just some interesting rocks with some VERY cool structures as well. Palatine Hill was much more interesting to me, it has been converted into a garden now, but in Roman times it was the most prestigious place for your home to be. The word Palace actually stems from there. The gardens were very pretty and it was easy to tell how the place was the best real estate, you would be right next to the Forum and you had an amazing view of the city, especially without all the high rise buildings that are there now. After the gardens I headed over and entered the Colosseum, it was very cool but it is so run down, you can just imagine how amazing it would have been when it was first built, it has a bunch of holes where there used to be statues and adornments and they ripped all that out to re use the building materials. The place is Huge though and even falling apart you can almost see the spectacle of 50,000 people watching gladiator fight at the center of the Colosseum. After the museums I headed back to the Hostel for the free pizza (hey free dinner, its a great money saver) and then crashed into bed again.
The next morning I decided to go with the rest of my roommates since they were once again going to the Vatican, they had tried to get in the day before but the place had been swamped since the Pope was in town, apparently they saw him do a service and then drive off in the pope mobile. We all went back and to the Vatican and we saw the Vatican, not much to say really it had lots of paintings and it was amazingly designed, I also managed to snap a photo of the Sistine Chapel even though your not supposed too. After the Chapel I went for a wonderful walk with three of my Hostel Mates (Rebecca, Brigget and Jack plus Briggets friend from Rome), anyway long story short we ended up having a meal at a nicer restaurant, I had a bowl of Spaghetti Alla Carbonnara which my dad made (and still makes) often for dinner. I wanted to be able to make a comparison. So dad, you do a pretty good job, the noodles were much more aldanate( under cooked) then I expected and the sauce was much richer then I am used to, it was a smaller bowl of pasta and t really filled me up, it tasted fantastic so it was worth the spendy pricetag. My share of the meal came out to be 18 Euros which is a huge price for me to pay for one meal, much higher then normal but you gotta treat yourself every once in a while right?
Anyway that day also went fast and then I went to bed again.
Today I moved cities and to sum things up quickly I grabbed a train, got off at the wrong stop, got back on again after waiting an hour and a half for the next train. When got to Naples I checked into the Hostel and had no problems. The crime here though is crazy, when you first exit the train station all along the street are people selling things and I reckon that 30% are easily noticeable as stolen goods as as high as 50% are actually stolen, I held onto my bag very tight, I even used the stomach strap though it was not needed.

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